Christmas Eve Offering: Love Made Visible
Every year, on Christmas Eve, we dedicate our entire offering to an organization doing God-honoring work in our world. This year, we’ll be giving our offering to Love Made Visible, specifically to their Vineyard initiative that will provide housing and familial support for teens in foster care in the Central Florida area.
The Vineyard aims to nurture faith-filled, strong, and independent teenagers into adulthood by providing permanent familial connections. They are opening a three-year pilot program to harness the power of churches to house foster teens aged 15 to 18 with families in the short term and to find forever families for teens in foster care.
Their goal is to reduce the number of teens in Orange County living in group homes and foster or adopt eligible teens into families before they age out of the system. Their homes will support each child's focus on sports and the arts.
Each home will have access to a gym, support for the sport of their choice, access to career internships or performing arts lessons, participation in CFCARTS drama programming, and choir opportunities as well. The team at the Vineyard is pulling out all the stops for these teens.
It can’t be understated how important this issue is in our area either. As of December 2021, there were approximately 150 kids in foster care in group-care situations in the Central Florida area. The Vineyard will help families adopt and foster these teenagers, providing a permanent home and enduring familial support.
The foster system in Central Florida represents 12% of our state’s foster children, yet it’s only been receiving 7% of the funding. Now more than ever, these organizations and these precious families could use the support of the local church.
At Summit, we want to be a part of supporting the systems and structures that serve vulnerable children in the Orlando area and beyond. We have no doubt that the money we give this year in our Christmas Eve Offering will go a long way toward strengthening and supporting those on the frontlines of this local crisis.
We want to be sure our congregation knows they’re in good hands when it comes to the way we handle money, too. Being that 15% of the offering money that comes in on any given week goes directly out to our local and global partners’ ongoing work in the world, we also put much energy toward researching and doing our due diligence with these organizations. We know them well and sincerely believe in the work they’re doing to help vulnerable children locally and globally.
If you’ve been going to Summit for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that we’re very careful about how we set up the offering each week. We say some version of “We want to be sure you know that no one asked you to be here for your money.” On Christmas Eve, though, we are going to be asking our Summit partners and guests alike to give and give generously as they are able to this worthy cause. So, be prepared!
We love the vision that God has given to Love Made Visible, and we can’t wait to see what comes of the Vineyard initiative in the future. We’re humbled that God has invited us to play a part in these kids’ stories, and we’re praying that our gift this year changes lives and eternities, communicating the very love of our Savior.
Join us on Christmas Eve and learn more about the Christmas Eve offering and Love Made Visible.